Bar associations urge Chinese leader to release prominent lawyer (Reuters)
Reuters, December 10, 2018
Bar associations urge Chinese leader to release prominent lawyer
“Bar associations from nearly 20 countries called on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday to release Wang Quanzhang, saying that the lawyer has been held incommunicado for more than three years with his legal rights denied. Wang, who took on sensitive cases of complaints of police torture and defended practitioners of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, went missing in August, 2015 during a sweeping crackdown on activists. ‘At the time of writing, he has been held incommunicado for over three years without any form of due process, and risks further deterioration of his health condition while in detention,’ said the petition letter to Xi issued on the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the initiative of the Geneva Bar Association. ‘Wang Quanzhang was not given access to an independent legal counselor of his choosing and has been denied access to his family lawyer, who was allegedly intimidated into withdrawing from his case,’ said the letter, whose other signatories include the New York City Bar, the Swedish Bar Association, The Law Society of England & Wales, and the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group.”
